Player News

Jefferies (5'10/183) started seven games during the 2017 season and posted 36 tackles and an interception for the campaign as a whole. He'll be graduating in August, leaving him two years of eligibility remaining once he settles on a future home. Bowling Green has a fair amount of depth in the secondary to make up for his loss.

Doege completed a solid 63.8 percent of his passes in his seven games as a freshman. When you make the adjustment as PFF does for things like drops, batted passes and passes where he was hit, that number jumps up to 72.7. Bowling Green was terrible in 2017, but Doege (6'3/191) does offer them some hope for the future.

Redding (6’1/181) was a two-year starter at Bowling Green, logging a career 94/1,328/14.1/14 receiving line and earning second-team All-MAC as a senior. In 2017, PFF College charted Redding with a 127.3 passer rating when targeted and zero drops. Still snubbed for a Combine invite, Redding showed NFL-caliber athleticism at the Falcons’ Pro Day with a 4.46 forty, 38 ½-inch vertical, and twitchy 6.85 three-cone time, good for 87th-percentile SPARQ results. Nevertheless, Redding’s rail-thin body type and underwhelming college production are major obstacles for his NFL outlook.

Bowling Green sophomore WR Matthew Wilcox was arrested on early Sunday morning and charged with operating a vehicle while impaired.

Wilcox (5'10/178) has been suspended indefinitely for his dangerous indiscretion. His arrest occurred after he crashed his vehicle into a tree. In addition to the OVI charge, he's facing charges of operating a vehicle without reasonable control, failure to wear a seat belt, and obstructing official business. Complicating matters, this was his second OVI arrest of 2018, as he'd previously been arrested for an incident in January. This past season, Wilcox caught 14 passes for 106 yards. More notably, he averaged 24.6 yards per kick return, the second-best mark in the MAC.

Doege is the brother of former Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege, and while he battled injuries, he showed flashes of brilliance in his freshman season for the Falcons. He goes into the year as the favorite to be the starting quarterback for Bowling Green this fall, but he'll have to hold off Grant Loy and true freshman Bryce Veasley to do so.

Bowling Green K Jake Suder exhausted his eligibility and won't be able to play in 2018.

This is a somewhat interesting story because Suder did not know that his 2017 was his final one for the Falcons. He transferred from Notre Dame to a community college before finally enrolling at Bowling Green a year later. Because he didn't play football in 2014, he thought that would count as a redshirt season. Nope. Suder went 27-of-34 on kicks for the Falcons over the last two seasons, so this is a relatively big loss for the Bowling Green "offense."

Bowling Green K Jake Suder exhausted his eligibility and won't be able to play in 2018.

This is a somewhat interesting story because Suder did not know that his 2017 was his final one for the Falcons. He transferred from Notre Dame to a community college before finally enrolling at Bowling Green a year later. Because he didn't play football in 2014, he thought that would count as a redshirt season. Nope. Suder went 27-of-34 on kicks for the Falcons over the last two seasons, so this is a relatively big loss for the Bowling Green "offense."

Hargrove was a long-time Bowling Green commit, but reopened his recruitment in November. He still ended up signing with the Falcons. A 5-foot-8, 162-pound scat back, Hargrove was compared to Darren Sproles by Rivals recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt. He could see time with Bowling Green on special teams as a returner, and may even compete for time in the backfield.

Bowling Green hired Illinois State LB coach Jacob Schoonover to serve in the same capacity.

Schoonover has been a familiar face on the Illinois State sideline over the past decade, having spent the last seven years working as linebackers coach with the program. This new job with Bowling Green will be his first working in an on-field capacity at the FBS level.

Williams was previously the DL coach at Western Michigan. He also has coached at Toledo, Eastern Michigan, and UAB, among other stops. He was a first-round pick in the 1982 draft after playing at Nebraska, and spent 11 years in the NFL with the Lions, Vikings and Buccaneers.

The Toledo Blade's John Wagner reports that Bowling Green will hire Youngstown State DC Carl Pelini to serve in the same capacity.

Pelini has been on staff with famous brother Bo Pelini at Youngstown State over the past four seasons. He'll have his work cut out for him with Bowling Green. The Falcons were one of the worst defensive teams in the country last season, coughing up an average of 506.6 yards per game and 38 points per contest. Youngstown State led the FCS in allowing just 143.7 yards passing this past season. Not only has Pelini helped to construct a very respectable defense at the lower level, he also has plenty of FBS experience, having served as head coach at FAU from 2012-13 and previously working on the defensive staff at Nebraska. We think this is a potentially nice fit for the Falcons, especially given that many coordinator names have already fallen off the board over the past few weeks.

Davidson (6'7/228) has put forth a lovely collegiate career with the Falcons, having been named an Academic All-American three times and finishing his time in the program as the NCAA's fourth all-time leading punter in terms of average (minimum 250 punts) with a mark of 44.4 yards. He could see Day 3 interest in the draft. Walter Football's Charlie Campbell currently stamps Davidson with a Rnd. 7-UDFA grade.

Guyton (6'3/203) came down with a 63-yard scoring catch on a bomb of a throw by Jarret Doege with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter to give the Falcons a 31-27 edge. EMU would respond with a score of their own later in the stanza to take the lead once more, that time for good. Guyton finishes out the season for the 2-10 Falcons having caught 36 passes for 697 yards and three touchdowns.